Twister receiving blanket quilts finished

If you have been following me for awhile, you know that my daughter has me make quilts for her children from the receiving blankets they used as babies.  One particular set of blankets (Lainey Jane's) had colors that didn't really look right together and it took me a long time to figure out how to use them in the same quilt.  I ended up making a larger version of a Twister quilt which I posted about here and this is the finished quilt.

Lainey's Big Twister quilt

Here's a closeup of the quilting and the polka dot binding.  Linda of L&R Designs did the custom quilting.

The backing is made from two polka dot fabrics from my stash.

I liked the Twister idea so well that I made Lylie's blankets into a Twister quilt also.  This time I just used the tool and 10" squares instead of making it oversized.

Lylie's Twister quilt

A closeup of the quilting by Linda of L&R Designs

and the back.  I purchased flannel for the back of this quilt and used the leftovers for the binding.

I cut the rest of the receiving blankets into squares and made Lylie a smaller quilt and a quilt for her dollies.

The backings for these quilts were from my stash which doesn't appear to be getting any smaller!

I am caught up on making quilts from receiving blankets because Kinsey is still using hers!  I overheard my daughter telling her grandmother who is also a quilter, "Grandma, I can have babies faster than you can make quilts."  Isn't that the truth for many of us quilters!

Great Granny Along blocks

I ran across the Great Granny Along quilt along and decided I needed to take a break from working on our house and make a block even if my sewing room is still a mess.  I talked Linda of L&R Designs into sewing one with me.  Here's our untrimmed blocks-

my great granny block

Linda's great granny block

Funny how we ended up using very similar colors in the same arrangement!  It wasn't planned.  We weren't really paying much attention to what fabrics the other was using.

What I love about this block is that it fits perfectly with my nickel theme.  You need one 5" square of fabric for the first round, two 5" squares for the second round and three 5" squares for the third round!  But you can also use 2 1/2" strips or squares.  It just fits in perfectly with how I cut up my scraps already. Check out Linda's blog to read more about how we made them.  You can find the tutorial to make your own great granny blocks here (scroll down).  

Twister receiving blanket quilt

The only time I've had to sew since we moved has been at retreats.  I made this Twister quilt at a weekend quilting retreat at the end of June.  It's made from my granddaughter Lylie's receiving blankets.  I used the original Twister tool that's made for 10" squares.  Off to my long arm quilter it goes!

If you have never tried a Twister ruler, you should.  It's addicting and is a great way to use scraps. As part of our retreat activities, we all brought 5" squares to exchange and made Lil' Twister quilts.  We all used the same fabric squares but we each used a different fabric for our outer border.

my Twister quilt

retreat Twister quilts

You can see an even larger Twister quilt that I made using 12 1/2" squares here and a smaller one here using the Itty Bitty Twister tool and 2 1/2" squares.

Since starting this post, I actually made a block in my new sewing room!  The room is far from being done but it's good enough to sew in.  I'll show you what I started next time.

Better late than never!

This is the last day to enter the Blogger's Quilt Festival at Amy's Creative Side.  With moving and all, I almost missed it. That's why I say, "Better late than never."  Click on the link to see all the wonderful quilts that have been posted and to find some new blogs to follow.

I am entering my Jumbled quilt in the festival.  I love all the Kaffe Fassett fabrics I used and it makes me happy to look at it with all the bright colors and patterns.  The pattern is a variation I came up with of the disappearing nine patch block and is made entirely from 5" squares. This quilt now belongs to our granddaughter Samantha.  I hope it makes her happy too.

Butterfly quilt #4

Kinsey Claire's color is aqua. Here's the center of her butterfly quilt top that I made on a quilt retreat that I went on the first weekend in May, less than 2 weeks after she was born.  This quilt is not quite so monochromatic as her sisters' quilts. I fell in love with the floral fabric in the wings of the butterfly in the first block of the second row and decided to use it as my color scheme. I think I will use it as one of my borders.

Kinsey's Butterfly quilt

Yes, in the middle of all of the craziness of moving and remodeling our new house, I went on a 3 day quilt retreat!  Really, really bad timing but I signed up for the retreat way before our house sold and before I knew my daughter was pregnant.  To top it all off, Kinsey's grandpa on her father's side passed away that same weekend. On the bright side, I was able to work on Kinsey's quilt without interruption.  I still need to find border, backing and binding fabrics but that won't happen real soon as I don't even have any idea about how to set up my new sewing room yet.  I just ordered the flooring yesterday.  I do know that I need to part with alot so be watching for more give-aways.

We are officially in our new house as of today and it is total chaos. Boxes and messes are everywhere.  We decided to redo the kitchen and master bath before moving in but as of now, I have no kitchen countertop so no sink or dishwasher either.  None of the drawers have pulls, 2 wall cabinets are not installed, the roll-out shelves for the pantry are not in and none of the trim is done.  The master bath remains gutted but at least we have 2 other working showers.  The whole house is overflowing because we are downsizing by about 1000 sq. ft.  We love the layout of the new house and know all the mess will be worth it soon.

Here are some pictures of the progress of our new kitchen-

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